Learning italian Archives

Learn Italian: how to make risotto with the best rice

17 April, 2020

How do you go about choosing the best rice for your risotto? If you’ve ever been to an Italian supermarket, you will have seen, and most likely been confused by, the great variety of Italian rice at hand.And one golden…

Italian words in English: "al fresco"

13 April, 2020

English and Italian borrow words from each other, with Italian words in English generally of the culinary variety. After I was roundly criticised by one commenter for making fun of Italians and their use of the word ‘trendy’, we thought…

Italian words in English: the meaning of fiasco

12 April, 2020

The word of the day in our learning Italian post today is “fiasco”. In Italy, the word “fiasco” generally means a spectacular flop for any performance in theatre or television. In English we often use it to mean a dramatic…

Italian sayings: the word "dai!"

12 April, 2020

We have a quick look today at the word, or rather onomatopoeic expression, of “dai”. It’s a subtle word and its meaning changes depending entirely on inflection, tone and volume. A quick list below.“Dai” said with an irritated tone can…

Italian word of the day: limonare

12 April, 2020

Strange but true: in Italian the word “limonare” (to lemon), means to kiss. The etymology is mysterious, but according to some sources the verb derives from “lemon”, used as a synonym for tongue. The use would be something as follows,…

Learning to speak Italian: guide to gendered nouns

8 April, 2020

We were going to write some stuff on Italian men and women, but until we get around to doing that, we may as well examine the gendered nouns of the language. For English speakers learning the Italian language, there are…

Learn Italian online: course in Italian sayings, word of the day "pizza"

3 April, 2020

In 1889, Raffaele Esposito (husband to the daughter of Enrico Brandi) was considered the best “pizzaiolo” or pizza chef of those times. As such, he was invited to the Reggia di Capodimonte in Naples, to make pizza for the King…

Learning Italian from Mozart: "Così fan tutte" translated "all women are like that"

30 March, 2020

Recently we spoke about Geri Halliwell’s and Fabrizio Politi’s split, and I mentioned the phrase “Così fan tutte“. The words are the title of Mozart’s famous opera set in Venice, which takes up the theme of “fiancée swapping”.In a complicated…

Video: Monty Python Italian lessons

24 March, 2020

This is an oldie but a goodie: Monty Python Italian lessons. In hyperbolic style, Giuseppe answers all the questions in fluent Italian and translates, and there’s an interruption from a German getting the wrong class, before someone pulls out the…

Learn to speak Italian: "tu" and "lei" formalities

24 March, 2020

English is quite subtle in its formal and informal registers - you say “good morning” rather than “hi”, “how are you” as opposed to “what’s happening”. But Italian has an entire grammar structure dedicated to formal language in the form…

Italian sayings: being "al bacio" with Perugina and the San Remo festival

18 March, 2020

In Italy, the kiss, or bacio, is very important. One of Italy’s sayings talks about the kiss, meaning perfection.When a recipe has been perfectly prepared, you can say it’s “al bacio”. You did some great spaghetti and knocked the socks…

Italian men: expressions "mammone" and "La mammasantissima"

18 March, 2020

The figure of the mother in Italy is almost a religion, venerated to the point where a man, as long as he has a mother in his life, has no need of other women. A “mammone” in Italy is a…

Actress Hilary Swank on her love affair with Italy

16 March, 2020

In a long interview granted to Italian magazine Grazia, American actress Hilary Swank talked at length about her love for Italy and its language. The first time she visited the country , she was 16 and fell immediately in love…